UPDATE 1-Creditors to present Brazil's Oi with new restructuring plan

Reuters Staff

2 Min Read

(Adds details on proposal, background)

SAO PAULO, Dec 9 (Reuters) - A group of creditors of Brazil’s struggling phone operator Oi SA, including export credit insurers and banks, plans to present to the company in the next two weeks a new restructuring proposal.

The group, represented by FTI Consulting Canada ULC, Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP, Mattos Filho, Veiga Filho, Marrey Jr. and Quiroga Advogados, said in a statement that it is in talks with the Sawiris Group and bondholders represented by Moelis & Co for an alternative restructuring plan for Oi.

Oi, Brazil’s forth largest wireless carrier, went into bankruptcy protection last June. Its 65.4 billion-real ($19.2 billion) case is the largest ever in Brazil.

The company presented in September a reorganization proposal that was badly received by creditors, who said it favored shareholders at their expense.

The group of creditors working on the new plan, which includes China Development Bank Corporation, said the Sawiris Group could be a potential strategic investor in Oi as a result of the new proposal.

Oi’s Chief Executive Officer Marco Schroeder said this week that management plans to meet major creditor groups and potential bidders as early as next week in a bid to accelerate efforts to help the company emerge from the bankruptcy protection.

Schroeder said Oi’s main shareholders and management are “more open” to scrapping a proposed three-year restriction on creditors swapping part of their debt for equity, which Oi included in the September proposal.

Brazil’s government has threatened to intervene in the case if the rift between the company, its shareholders and creditors persists. (Reporting by Aluisio Alves and Marcelo Teixeira; editing by Lisa Shumaker, Bernard Orr)